This was written by Cherie from you & mie for the Miss Matatabi Makers series.

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When I saw the Fall 2014 lines of Cotton + Steel, I was so excited – so many amazing prints!! Honestly, it took me ages to decide what I was going to sew and what fabrics I was going to choose. I changed my mind a million times and STILL have dreams of future Cotton + Steel projects dancing in my head! But right off the bat I was drawn to Rashida Coleman-Hale’s Mochi collection, which is really no surprise because I love pretty much everything she has ever made. I love the fun vibrant colors of the Mochi collection and the familiar references to Japanese culture, and of course the gorgeous designs. One of the best parts is how perfectly all the fabrics work together.

So Frances graciously sent me a fat quarter bundle of some of the quilting cottons from the line and I decided to put them together and make something I really needed. A sewing machine cover!

I’ve been interested in trying out some new quilting and piecing techniques, so I thought I’d try out the ever popular hexagons. I kinda cheated though and after making the hexies, I just appliquéd them on instead of hand stitching them together first.

I absolutely love how many amazing little details and designs each print contains that you discover when you look at each fabric up close.

Since I was using quilting cotton and I wanted the cover to have more structure, I decided to use some fusible fleece that I had laying around. It worked pretty well and adds a bit of padding to the cover, but it’s not very stiff, so it doesn’t stand up on it’s own or anything. The cover was inspired by this one by Spool that I’ve had pinned forever, but apparently the site and post no longer exist! So I just measured my machine and made something sort of similar. The front, top and back are all just one rectangular panel and the sides are trapezoids – slightly narrower on the top and wider at the base. I pieced together some binding for the bottom.

The fabric is not only lovely to look at, but wonderful to touch and sew as well. It’s great quality. I also got one of the Cotton + Steel cotton/linen canvas prints and a sample of one of their lawns and they are all sooooo nice!

The pieces that I used were so small that I have quite a bit of each fat quarter left! What to make next? A serger cover? Laptop cover? The prints work so well alone or together with the others in the line. I can imagine a lot of cute women’s or kids’ clothes, like this dress that Rae made for her daughter. And I think these prints would make a stunning baby quilt! I can’t wait to play around more with the Cotton + Steel fabrics and see what others make with it too!

Till next time!
 

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Thank you, Cherie! Connect with Cherie on her blog, instagram, facebook, and pinterest.